Freaky. I've been in pretty severe hail, enough to dent the hood, but not shatter windshield glass. On the other hand, the glass on my '15 VW GTI was very "soft", and cracked easily. I'm wondering if new formulations are just not as strong as what was used hitherto?

Freaky. I've been in pretty severe hail, enough to dent the hood, but not shatter windshield glass. On the other hand, the glass on my '15 VW GTI was very "soft", and cracked easily. I'm wondering if new formulations are just not as strong as what was used hitherto?

"I've been in pretty severe hail, enough to dent the hood, but not shatter windshield glass. "

It's not the weight, exactly. It's the force (kinetic energy) of the projectile hitting the glass. Half the mass times the velocity squared. And the area that is hit. It's why a bullet, which doesn't weigh much of anything, will shatter a windshield. I think a lot of it has to do with the angle of the hit; stress factors probably differ along differing aspects of the windshield curvature. Maybe there are temperature variables from the inside to the outside that affect the ability of the glass to absorb stress.. Just a freaky thing. Might never be replicated in real life. I still think that glass today is "softer" than past formulations, but I have no data about this.

I'm honestly surprised he isn't going after the city for a replacement wind-shield, at the very least it would have created more visibility to the potential damages and issues
plowing without some type of barrier to catch compact snow being flung.